Businesses can no longer rely on trade exhibitions, events, or in-person meetings to promote growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales have relinquished control of the purchasing process, and it is now up to marketing to reclaim it. Account-based marketing (ABM) has shown to be the most efficient approach as B2B marketers embrace the digital age.
Looking back over the last few years, it’s evident that B2B buying has finally moved to the digital realm. B2B buying groups prefer to explore new products and services online, mirroring E-surge commerce’s dominance in B2C. Members of these buying groups, which can number up to 30 persons in large sales companies, tend to remain anonymous as well. They only fill out a web form or contact sales after they have completed most of their purchasing process and it’s too late for a salesperson to sway their final decision.
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In 2022 and beyond, the following trends will shape ABM strategies and investments:
The convergence of demand gen & ABM
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing when it comes to ABM. Some companies have had success with ABM and demand generation initiatives that are closely aligned. In addition, several firms are combining their ABM, demand generation, and SDR/BDR teams to form “Revenue Growth Teams.”
This will be reflected in the technology investments made by marketers in the coming year. Native email marketing automation has already been added by several ABM platform vendors. While it’s unclear whether ABM platforms will eventually replace MAPs, an integrated solution that combines account-based advertising with email marketing automation is a great option. This type of solution will aid in the engagement of both anonymous and known contacts across the purchase cycle while also reducing the resources needed to run omnichannel ABM programs.
The move from leads to sales possibilities based on insights
In B2B marketing, a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) has long been a significant success metric. However, leads are no longer sufficient because businesses make purchasing decisions in groups rather than as individual connections. Marketers who are thinking ahead will search for anonymous intent signals from important accounts rather than web form fills. Marketers will become more strategic, measuring the impact of their ABM campaigns and insights on new sales prospects, deal sizes, win rates, pipeline, and contract renewals.
How will these new anonymous buying intent signals be viewed by marketers? Some ABM platforms can mine anonymous account-level buying intent data from a company’s website, webinar platforms, and omnichannel marketing campaigns.
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When the ABM platform recognizes spikes in key account engagement with essential content — signaling the formation of a buying group — marketers can put up alerts using AI. This allows marketing to select accounts for later-stage marketing techniques and gives salespeople timely information to reach out to target accounts ahead of the competition.
The demise of third-party cookies
“The pandemic elevated the advertising and marketing industry. It forced marketers out of their comfort zones and led them to consider new tools such as buying-group marketing,” says Dmitri Lisitski, Co-Founder and CEO at Influ2. “Buying-group marketing merges both demand generation and account-based marketing into one and a large majority of purchasing decisions will be made by these groups in 2022,” adds Dmitri.
Despite the fact that Google has postponed its ban on third-party cookies until 2023, businesses should start preparing their digital advertising strategies now. Better yet, there are already privacy-compliant alternatives available, and marketers should take the time to investigate them.
IP advertising is on its way to becoming the de facto standard for highly targeted B2B marketing. It’s the only approach for sending relevant and tailored display advertising to both known and unknown buying group members based on their workplace IP address that’s entirely dependable and privacy-compliant. It eliminates waste and allows for “always-on” account-based advertising without the use of third-party cookies.
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